After drowning, Cape Charles plans safety measures

A Virginia Marine Resources Commission boat scans the water for the missing swimmer off Cape Charles Sunday. Cape Charles plans to install safety markers in the waters after the drowning of Alvaro Lopez of Tasley on Sunday.(Photo: Staff photo by Jay Diem)Buy Photo

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Cape Charles will be installing safety line and rope floats following the drowning off public beach

The body of Alvaro Lopez, 15, was recovered after he went missing while swimming in Chesapeake Bay

Lopez' drowning occurred less than a year after an 8-year-old drowned in the same area last August

The rope floats will start at the jetty next to the town fishing pier and will extend to Monroe Avenue

In the wake of Sunday's drowning of a teenager off the Cape Charles beach, the town will soon have markers designating deep swimming waters.

Cape Charles Recreational Coordinator Jen Lewis said safety line and rope floats will begin at the jetty neighboring the town's fishing pier and will extend to Monroe Avenue.

"It keeps the boats out and we're hoping it will keep the people in," Lewis said of the new safety measure.

The recreational coordinator ordered the markers weeks before Alvaro Lopez of Tasley went missing Sunday evening while swimming at the public beach.

Cape Charles Police Chief Jim Pruitt confirmed Lopez's body was found Monday at 2:40 p.m. in 5 feet of water about 200 yards off shore.

A friend identified the 15-year-old, whose body slipped under the surface of the water off Cape Charles, as a Nandua High School student. Lopez recently completed ninth grade at Nandua.

Family members of the teenager gathered in prayer shortly after the body was recovered from the Chesapeake Bay. Family friend Victoria Cabrera made the following statement: "We want to say thank you to everybody around here" for the food, drinks and other support offered the family during the ordeal.

(Photo: Submitted Image)

A Mass of Christian Burial was scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. at St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church in Onley with interment following in the Fairview Lawn Cemetery.

Sunday's drowning occurred not even before the one-year anniversary of another tragic accident at Cape Charles beach.

Last August, 8-year-old Uvihin "Ace" Horton of New Jersey drowned while also swimming on a Sunday.

Lewis said she hopes the safety line and rope floats will deter beachergoers from swimming in deeper waters.

The markers will also serve as a boat exclusionary zone.

"I think one of the initial concerns when the discussion started was that people on Jet Skis were coming in too close to people swimming off the beach," said Town Manager Brent Manuel. "So we're trying to keep sort of motorized watercraft away from swimmers."

Large, white buoys that read "Swim Area," will be placed every 50 feet from the jetty to Monroe Avenue. In between those will be smaller white and blue floats, similar to those seen in a public swimming pool, every 10 feet.

Each float will be attached to a stainless steel cable that will be affixed to a block of concrete.

The total cost of installing the safety line and rope floats was just over $10,000. Lewis said funding awarded by the Northampton County Tourism Grant Committee will cover half of the project cost. The remainder will be paid with funds previously budgeted by the town.

Following Sunday's drowning, residents began asking why there are no lifeguards on Cape Charles beach.

Lewis said the main issue with hiring lifeguards to protect swimmers is the expense of manpower.

"This swim area was our first effort to see how that would work. A lot less cost and manpower," she said.

"I don't think it's like hiring a lifeguard for a pool. It's a little more extensive training that's involved for an open body of water," Manuel added.

On Wednesday, Lewis said the safety line and rope floats should arrive on "any day."

The recreational coordinator said once the town's plan is approved by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which has authority over regulatory markers in public waters, the new safety measure will be installed immediately.